CLEMENCY AFTER ELECTION: Hickenlooper’s Craven Move To Hide From Voters

What else is Gov. John Hickenlooper not telling Coloradans? Complete Colorado has exclusive audio of Hickenlooper once again telling a reporter in confidence something he has never revealed to the average Coloradan. This time Hickenlooper reveals that win or lose come November he’ll be granting Nathan Dunlap clemency. As Complete writes:

In an interview with CNN earlier this year, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper suggested that if he does not win reelection, he could use his executive powers to overhaul Colorado’s death row with clemency…

Hickenlooper interrupts. ”And, you know, if that becomes a political issue, in that context within a campaign, um, obviously there’s a period of time between the election and, and the end of the year where individuals can make decisions, such as a governor can.” [the Peak’s emphasis]

As Kelly Maher over at Compass Colorado points out in a statement:

The irony, of course, is that the one person who made the execution of one of Colorado’s most vile killers a “political football” is Hickenlooper himself.

Much like President Obama and Sen. Mark Udall on the Keystone XL pipeline, it is Hick who has inserted politics into the death penalty here in Colorado. He has done this by choosing to ignore a decision made by a jury of average Coloradans, upheld on three separate occasions by Colorado’s Supreme Court. If it wasn’t for Hickenlooper inserting politics into the process by refusing to allow the execution to proceed or by exercising his right as Governor to commute the sentence, politics would never have come to bear here. Instead, Hickenlooper’s refusal to be a leader where he would take a stance or make a definite decision on Dunlap has left waters murky that definitely shouldn’t be.

Last week, Hickenlooper admitted he’s now anti-death penalty. Despite this admission, Hickenlooper has refused to commute Dunlap’s sentence yet. Is Hickenlooper not willing to stand by what he believes and let the Colorado voters’ decide accordingly? What kind of political posturing is that? It’s clear it is more important to Hickenlooper to be reelected than to be a strong, principled leader that Colorado deserves. The man who claims to not be your average politician, has proven he’s much more cynical and craven than your average politician; most of them have the decency at least to not hide from voters what they feel is clearly wrong. It’s apparent now the only thing Hickenlooper strongly believes in is the furthering of his own ambitions.